“Belle,” said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile, “I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.”
'He seized the extinguisher cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head.'
'Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together...'
“Guess!”“Who was it?”“How can I? Tut, don’t I know?” she added in the same breath, laughing as he laughed. “Mr. Scrooge.”
“I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,” said the Spirit. “Look upon me!”
'The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.'
'But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came...'
'All this time, he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour'
“Why, where’s our Martha?” cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. “Not coming,” said Mrs. Cratchit “Not coming!” said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits;
'“Never,” Scrooge made answer to it.''“You have never seen the like of me before!” exclaimed the Spirit.'
'...flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces.'
Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed if it were only in-joke; she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.